


Serendipity

by Cactaceae28



Category: Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode Tag, Episode: s02e10 The Red Angel, Episode: s02e12 I Mudd, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Second Chances, Trektober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27108094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cactaceae28/pseuds/Cactaceae28
Summary: For Kirk it had been just another mission, another problem to solve, until they discovered a piece of his friend's past and, maybe, a chance to soothe old wounds and provide a new beginning.
Relationships: James T. Kirk & Spock, Spock & Airiam (Star Trek)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34
Collections: Trektober 2020





	Serendipity

**Author's Note:**

> **Serendipity:** the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.
> 
> For Trektober 2020, Day 18: Amnesia

Kirk listened with incredulity while Norman explained his fantastic story about a robotic society formed from the ashes of an extinct civilization —not unbelievable, unfortunately, but baffling no matter how many times he was confronted with it—, and held back on his comments on Harry Mudd’s character, unsure of the best strategy to use to free himself and his crew.

Confronted with his silence, Norman turned to go; but his exit was interrupted by a new inhabitant choosing that moment to peek around the door, resting her white, plastic fingers on the threshold.

This new being was different; she looked at them with wide, blue eyes and it seemed that she was seeing something different from her cohorts. She was also wearing something that looked like the old-school, blue and silver uniforms that Kirk had seen in old photos but that he had just barely managed to dodge as an ensign. He frowned and turned to Norman, wondering what was going on, when he heard a gasp behind him.

"Those are old Federation cybernetic grafts," Bones said in astonishment. “My God, I have never seen such an intensive use before.”

"Who is this, then? A different infiltration model from your people?" Kirk asked, still looking for the thread he could use to free them and their ship.

"No, Captain," Norman said, with a tone that suddenly seemed slightly muted. "We found her. Years ago, drifting near our space. Off-line and heavily damaged. We were able to restore. Some of her cognitive abilities and damaged parts. But our efforts to perform a full restoration remain. Unsuccessful."

"Do I… know… you?" She asked. When she spoke, her voice was melodious and almost childlike, far more lifelike, despite her strange appearance, than any other on this planet.

"001. Please return. To your section," Norman ordered, watching Kirk with wariness.

"No. I… know… you," she insisted, finally stepping fully into the room.

Kirk searched for something to say to ease her confusion, momentarily overwhelmed by pity, when he felt Spock step forward until they were shoulder to shoulder.

“Airiam.”

Kirk turned, openly surprised at the strange interruption, but his first officer was completely focused on the cybernetic being, apparently ignoring everyone and everything else.

“Airiam,” Spock repeated, taking another cautious step, faint incredulity finally breaking through his usual calm expression.

The cyborg cocked her head jerkily, and her eyes lit up with a myriad of little blue flashes as she regarded him. She spoke again, in spite of the effort it took her, with increasing surety in her words.

“You… know… me."

“Yes.”

Norman and the Alices watched the interaction curiously, with their necklaces beeping in unison. No one, however, seemed willing to break this moment. There was a sense that something incredible was happening.

“Who… am… I?”

“You are lieutenant commander Airiam, of Discovery.”

"Spock?" Kirk ventured softly. If he hadn't made a point of studying his friend's minute tells, he would have missed the second when his shoulders tensed, like he was steeling himself. Though he directed his words at him, his gaze didn't waver from the woman’s —from Airiam’s.

“She was a Starfleet officer, Jim. We met nine years ago when Captain Pike was temporarily reassigned to her ship. An away mission went wrong; we thought her lost. She was given an officer’s burial.”

Uhura lifted a hand to her mouth, and Kirk couldn’t help but sympathize. An officer’s burial meant her body had been recovered and sent to the stars, like the sailors of old.

The idea that her coffin had been found after her death, that a part of who she had been could have been reconstructed like this, without anyone becoming aware of her second chance, made some primitive part in him recoil.

“Captain… Pike…” Airiam repeated dreamily, unaware of the horror her story had incited in her audience. “F in… astrophysics… Hit it… Open… the airlock…”

She sprung forward then, quickly closing the distance between them and gripping the Vulcan’s forearm so hard that a human would not have withstood the pressure. McCoy cursed behind them and Kirk could feel Chekov’s hand make an instinctive move towards his missing phaser, but Spock endured it without a sound, as intent in her as she was in him.

“I didn’t… want to… I didn’t… please… Take her… away… Don’t let it… happen… Daedalus…”

Spock ignored the bruising force and rested his free hand over hers, with the gentleness that so few believed he had.

“It is over. Airiam, we succeeded; the data is gone.”

Her lips twitched into a smile and she let go, moving half a step backwards. She looked up at Spock, and her eyes roamed around his face with a small frown before she seemed to find what she was looking for in his eyes.

Slowly, with something very close to yearning, she formed a soft, “Ti…?”

Involuntarily, Kirk held his breath, knowing what that tone of voice meant; but instead of continuing the conversation, the shadow of a heavy sort of regret appeared in Spock's eyes, one that Kirk had only sometimes glimpsed in the unguarded moments when his friend’s walls were fully down. After a moment, however, he answered.

“Ensign Tilly… survived.”

“Mick’el?”

“… Yes.”

“That’s… good. I’m… glad.”

When it became clear that neither of them was going to continue, Norman, having apparently recorded all he needed, left without another word. The Alices remained, and for a few seconds they watched the two officers with only the beeping of their necklaces breaking the silence.

Kirk frowned. Normally he would have allowed them to continue for a while longer, but his instinct was telling him that he needed to get them out of the room, as soon as possible, because they had several conversations pending that should not be overheard by their captors. 

“Would you mind leaving us?” He curtly interrupted Alice 2.

"Why. Should we leave you?"

"Because, we don't like you."

That was enough to get them moving. The Alices turned to go, but stopped just before crossing the threshold.

"001?" One of them asked.

"I wish… to stay," she stated. The Alices accepted it and finally left.

Kirk wondered if he should push the issue; regardless of her past, he could not be sure that the woman he had in front of him was truly the officer she had once been. He looked at the Vulcan, searching for a reassurance, and easily found it in his stance; Spock would vouch for her.

Still, he could feel that something was not quite right. Perhaps it was the strange reticence he had heard in his usually resolute friend’s voice, the way he seemed to be almost preparing himself for a blow. Perhaps it was the mention of Pike, almost a year after the mad journey to Talos IV, and the seed of insecurity that had been left in its wake, but he knew there was something else to the story.

“We need to start making a plan,” he said, breaching the silence, “but first, I’m sorry Mr. Spock but have to ask… Is there something you aren’t telling us?”

Spock closed his eyes, shifting to stand at attention. When he opened them again, he looked at the four of them, one by one, before beginning his explanation.

“The official records, should any of you care to examine them, will state the U.S.S. Discovery was a small, experimental science vessel that was lost with all hands due to a catastrophic cascade failure during the test of a new propulsion system. That is only a small parcel of the truth," he paused, choosing his next words with care. Airiam stopped her aimless wandering to stand by his side, and it seemed to give him an extra burst of strength.

"Captain, by speaking of it today, to you all, and to her, I have committed treason against the Federation; but I swore that I would not violate your trust again.”

Unspoken went the fact that he had not wanted to leave Airiam with the uncertainty of her own origins or believing the worst of the fate of those she had loved. Kirk could feel his innate curiosity coiling inside him, burning with the need to probe deeper, to investigate further.

More than the drastic measures of the cover-up, however, it was the faint hurt that was evident behind Spock’s eyes and the obvious toll the words were taking on him, that made Kirk reconsider. This went beyond following orders, beyond his own feelings. He knew that if he insisted, and if he did it as a friend, he could get to the full truth; but he realized that he wouldn’t be able to achieve it without opening a wound that had barely scabbed over.

“Then, we won’t speak of it further,” he stated instead. “That is an order, gentlemen.”

“Yes, sir,” three voices rose behind him in unison.

"Now, let's figure out how we are getting out of this one," he looked at Airiam, who was still nearly lost to them but who held his gaze with a remnant of the steadiness she must have once possessed, "and then, we'll go home.”

“All of us," he finished, feeling the rightness of his decision.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you thought (even though I'm a day late with this) :D
> 
> (Also because there was no way to fit this in:
> 
> “Wait, all this time she was one of Lorca’s?” Mudd yelped indignantly. “I’d have made her pay taxes if I had known that.”
> 
> “Do I... know… him?” Airiam asked, pointing at the con-man.
> 
> “That would seem to be the case. Unfortunately.”)


End file.
